Thousands of votes still uncounted in Marion Co.   (IN)
WTHR Indianapolis      07 November 2007

Marion County - Thousands of votes in Marion County have yet to be counted after some technical problems at the polls in Tuesday's election.

The main issue is with the computer memory cards that record ballot tallies. In some cases, the cards went missing or the workers weren't sure how to take them out.  Election workers began with 30 cards unaccounted for, but that number was down to less than half of that by noon. The number of cards unaccounted for this year is fewer than in the 2006 election.

Election workers began the canvassing process Tuesday to finalize what are by law preliminary election results from Tuesday night.

Included with the voter machines and the voting records returning to the Election Board warehouse are the memory cards that weren't read into the system last night. Starting Wednesday, they will be read into the system for vote totals.

"We're going to go and find what we're missing. Just a few of the precincts are missing. Nothing nefarious is happening. We have a bipartisan agreement about how this is going to be handled. It's always handled the same way. Both political parties understand and are at the table and are doing this. I don't want there to be concern or people to have less confidence in the process. I want to say this is always the way it happens. It's a big county. We have a lot of  precincts to consider and we're working as fast as we can to get it figured out," said Beth White, Marion County clerk (D).

By mutual agreement between both political parties will begin looking at the closest races first and seeing how many votes are not counted in the districts. There are about nine close City-County Council races in the county. The revised totals are unlikely to change the outcome of major Republican gains. In one race in the Fountain Square area, Democrat Dane Mahern leads his Republican opponent Harry L. Liggett by a few dozen votes.